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When I told my next door neighbor in May of 2008 that I was going to sell the house along with all of my personal possessions and move to Chiclayo Peru with my Peruvian wife, his response was..” That’s a path not many men walk.” I had that impression as well, but have since learned that many men and women have walked and continue to walk that path. There is a large expatriate community in Lima and a significant number of gringos scattered about the remainder of the country from the larger coastal cities to the smallest jungle villages. Many of them have personal blogs in which they offer travel advice, news, and a wealth of other information along with their individual experiences. The purpose of this blog is not so far reaching. My intent is simply to record my experiences and observations for family, friends and anyone else who may be interested, but mostly for myself. Peru is to me a musical, magical land and I’ve found that writing about it helps me to preserve the beauty I experience as I explore this enchanting country. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site. Feel free to come back again, and leave a comment if you’d care to or send an email to me at kaetan1@gmail.com.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Invisible Village of Redondo

Somewhere around 90 miles north of Chiclayo; all of it on a
decent asphalt highway is the small town of El Porvenir in the Olmos District.
It took us 2 ½ hours to get that far. Public transportation would have added
another hour. At El Porvenir there is a dirt road heading west toward
the village of Redondo 15 miles away.

You need a guide to get there. We followed a guy on a
motorcycle. There are no landmarks, and there are many forks in the road
leading off in all directions. The country all looks the same; scrub desert
growth. There is no agriculture here because there is no water. This is goat,
sheep, turkey, and for some of the more affluent people, cattle country.

After 35 minutes the guide stopped and told us we were in
Redondo. I thought he was joking. There was not one single house in sight. Other
than a fence and a hut constructed of poles and weather-beaten fabric there was
nothing visible that had been touched by the hand of man.

The hut is what we had been brought there to see. The hut is pronoei Alegria de Los Niños. It’s
been there for one year with teacher Isabel Monja trying her best to teach the
9 kids regularly attending.

She has absolutely nothing to work with. There are
other kids in the area but they don’t come because of the limitations of the
school. They’re not attending school at all.

In ones and twos from out of the woods a delegation of
parents appeared. I don’t know how they knew we were there. They told us the
same story we’re heard four times this year at other caserios. They have a lot
to build a pronoei on but no money to do it and the authorities in Olmos say they
don’t have money to build. One of the men works in construction in Olmos. He
estimated that the cost of a concrete slab and modular building with restroom would
cost $6,200. Labor would add another $1,550. That’s a lot of money.

It’s a helpless feeling…not being able to do anything for them.
Those kids are not getting the kind of education they need and it’s nobody’s
fault. Our discussion ended as it did in Olleria yesterday. A delegation will
visit the mayor in Olmos to see if the district can contribute something if
there were outside help. We’ll wait to hear from them.

Tomorrow we’ll be at the village of Chita Loma in the
district of Salas. We don’t know what we’ll find there but it won’t surprise us
if it’s another pronoei that needs a home.